As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully travels to the Gulf region this weekend for meetings in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain.

?Our relationships with this important region are growing at a great pace and my visit will be an opportunity to continue discussions about priority areas, including the NZ-GCC FTA, regional security issues and cooperation in areas such as renewable energy,? Mr McCully says. ? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

The photo above shows four Emirates A380 planes on the tarmac at Auckland at one time.

I’ve flown Emirates several times and love the airline. They are an interesting airline in that all of their planes are wide-bodies.

The A380 is a magic plane and I’ve travelled from Singapore to Dubai return in economy class and it was very comfortable. My trip to Turkey to attend the Gallipoli celebrations was Business Class all the way, across different planes. Leaving Auckland in the A380 and travelling via Brisbane. From Dubai to Turkey was in a B777. The business class seats were a different layout but still very good, but not the same as the A380 pods, which I prefer.

When my brother lived in Dubai it was amazing sitting at his house watching the planes take off. It is just a constant stream of planes.

A funny thing happened, though, on our return trip from Dubai. Dad and I checked in together and they put all the bags on my boarding pass. We get up to?the?lounge and I set up next to my gate to make it easy to board and then Dad says why are you sitting here? I said it is by my gate. He holds up his boarding pass and he has a different gate number. A little bit of investigation later and we find out that when he booked the flights for our trip he picked one of the return flights differently. He was returning via Brisbane, and I was returning via Melbourne (with all his bags). It wasn’t funny at the time but there was literally nothing that could be done, so we travelled back separately. I arrived first, cleared customs with all the bags and 30 minutes later Dad walked off and away we went. ? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

“The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations,” the statement said on Tuesday.

A long list of Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, together with Islamic countries Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and Gulf Arab and African states were mentioned. ? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

Of course the Labour party?and their hard left supporters?said nothing when the Labour party under Helen Clark pursued and ultimately succeeded in garnering a free trade agreement with China, who execute thousands every year and have a human rights record that is one of the worst in the world.

This is the justification of the left in not doing anything against ISIS…because Saudi Arabia executed people with beheadings too…

John Key will arrive in Saudi Arabia today with the hope of getting high-level commitment from the new King to a free trade agreement with the Gulf states, which has been all but finalised since 2009.

Mr Key has been in the United Arab Emirates for the past two days and today’s stop will be the first visit by a New Zealand Prime Minister to Saudi Arabia.

Mr Key is scheduled to meet King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, who has been king since January after the death of his half-brother, King Abdullah.

Mr Key’s wife, Bronagh, will be wearing an abaya in Saudi Arabia, a robe-like dress covering all but the hands and head. A business delegation and Trade Negotiations Minister Tim Groser are also travelling with the Prime Minister.

Mr Key has been urged to take up the issue of human rights abuses with the Saudi leadership, particularly executions, of which there have been 50 this year, mainly by beheading according to Amnesty International.

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

The Media have been making quite a meal of this encounter between two consenting adults. In a democracy like New Zealand these two have been subjected to humiliation and moral condemnation. It may even affect their employment as the encounter occurred in an office. Len Brown still has his job however so maybe they will be alright. Their main mistake was leaving the lights on. Moral condemnation aside ( the man is married ) they are fortunate to have not been caught doing this in a country under the law of the religion of peace.

If you agree with me that’s nice, but what I really want to achieve is to make you question the status quo, look between the lines and do your own research. Do not be a passive observer in this game we call life.

Many people can’t fathom the crazies of Islam, and you’ve all heard the epithet “mad Mullahs”…but it seems that there may be sound reasoning as to why they seem unable to act like reasonable human beings.

Nikolai Sennels is a Danish psychologist who has done extensive research into a little-known problem in the Muslim world: the disastrous results of Muslim inbreeding brought about by the marriage of first cousins.

This practice, which has been prohibited in the Judeo-Christian tradition since the days of Moses, was sanctioned by Muhammad and has been going on now for 1,400 years in the Muslim world. This practice of inbreeding will never go away, since Muhammad is the ultimate example and authority on all matters, including marriage.

The massive inbreeding in Muslim culture may well have done irreversible damage to the Muslim gene pool and extensive damage to its intelligence, sanity, and health.

According to Sennels, close to half of all Muslims in the world are inbred. In Pakistan, the number approaches 70%. Even in England, more than half of Pakistani immigrants are married to their first cousins, and in Denmark the number of inbred Pakistani immigrants is around 40%.

The numbers are equally devastating in other important Muslim countries: 67% in Saudi Arabia, 64% in Jordan and Kuwait, 63% in Sudan, 60% in Iraq, and 54% in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. ? Read more »

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

That?alone makes me want to read it. A Middle East leader of a vibrant modern nation commenting on ISIS…its worth a read in full.

The global financial crisis taught the world how profoundly interdependent our economies have become. In today?s crisis of extremism, we must recognize that we are just as interdependent for our security, as is clear in the current struggle to defeat ISIS.

If we are to prevent ISIS from teaching us this lesson the hard way, we must acknowledge that we cannot extinguish the fires of fanaticism by force alone. The world must unite behind a holistic drive to discredit the ideology that gives extremists their power, and to restore hope and dignity to those whom they would recruit.

ISIS certainly can ? and will ? be defeated militarily by the international coalition that is now assembling and which the UAE is actively supporting. But military containment is only a partial solution. Lasting peace requires three other ingredients: winning the battle of ideas; upgrading weak governance; and supporting grassroots human development.

Such a solution must begin with concerted international political will. Not a single politician in North America, Europe, Africa, or Asia can afford to ignore events in the Middle East. A globalized threat requires a globalized response. Everyone will feel the heat, because such flames know no borders; indeed, ISIS has recruited members of at least 80 nationalities.

As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.

They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn’t do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.

Seems Israel isn’t the only one tired of radical Islamists, as Arab nations normally opposing to the on again, off again conflict turned a blind eye to Israel pummeling the extremists launching rockets at Israel. Egypt’s own military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood and began a crackdown on the organisation hostile to Zionism in 2013:

CAIRO ? Battling Palestinian militants in Gaza two years ago, Israel found itself pressed from all sides by unfriendly Arab neighbors to end the fighting.

Not this time.

After the military ouster of the Islamist government in Cairo last year, Egypt has led a new coalition of Arab states ? including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ? that has effectively lined up with Israel in its fight against Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip. That, in turn, may have contributed to the failure of the antagonists to reach a negotiated cease-fire even after more than three weeks of bloodshed.

?The Arab states? loathing and fear of political Islam is so strong that it outweighs their allergy to Benjamin Netanyahu,? the prime minister of Israel, said Aaron David Miller, a scholar at the Wilson Center in Washington and a former Middle East negotiator under several presidents.

?I have never seen a situation like it, where you have so many Arab states acquiescing in the death and destruction in Gaza and the pummeling of Hamas,? he said. ?The silence is deafening.? Read more »